


We Can Make the Words

by OldEmeraldEye



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Brave Trails (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Crush at First Sight, F/F, Femslash February 2021, First Meetings, Pre-Relationship, Teenagers, The Embrace (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29183331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldEmeraldEye/pseuds/OldEmeraldEye
Summary: Nora do not, as a rule, talk to outcasts. The girl is a strange, captivating anomaly in Aloy's understanding of the world.
Relationships: Aloy/Vala (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	We Can Make the Words

They freeze, two Brave aspirants climbing the same trail, Aloy holding herself aloft with the strength of her fingertips and one knee wedged against outcropping, the strange Nora balanced on a thin ledge in the section ahead of her.

This is closer than she's been to actual Nora since she saved the boy from herd of grazers. It's going better than that had, at least so far. It's not like she's tried talking yet.

And - it's not like Aloy don't know how to talk, the laws of the Tribe be damned. She talks to Rost, and Gratta (not that Gratta ever talks back, of course, being a proper Outcast) and Karst is good for an insult or two when he wants her shards. She can talk. It's just that all the words are missing, right now.

The Nora is young, as young as Aloy, maybe, and dark like the strong wooden beams that support the roof of their hut. Her skin is darker than Rost's hair, and her hair is black too, like late nights hunting machines by their glow - it makes the paint over her eye shine like machine braiding. Her eyes are really pretty too, bright, watching Aloy watching her.

"Are you just going to hang there all day?" Speaking. To her. Voice is nice, soft, smooth. And directed at her. Being talked to, being seen and acknowledged without any curses is, well. New. And strange. And nice.

"Uh, no." If she doesn't get moving soon, her arms are going to cramp and drop her three body-lengths. She doesn't say that bit.

She smiles - bright, gleaming, beautiful. "I'll see you at the top."

"There isn't -" but she's gone, clambering up like no time has passed between their encounter and now. Aloy sighs, and pushes off sideways to cross the gap. She has a Nora to catch.

Good practice, for the Proving. And speaking. Talking to her is nothing like talking to Rost. She hadn't even said _follow_.

Aloy catches up to her, the skin on her knuckles just this side of bleeding from a misjudged grab, on the little hollow of the lookout post, the highest point before trail dips down again to wind its way along the side of the cliff overlooking the divide between the Embrace and larger Sacred Lands. She sits perched on the ledge, legs hanging over the edge. Out of the shadow, sun gleams down on her, drawing Aloy's attention to the abundant beading on her outfit.

"There isn't a top, to this trail."

The Nora peers over the side. "High enough for me." Looks back at Aloy, who's beginning to wonder if she should look away. She doesn't want to, scared that if she does she - the, uh - how do people ask for other peoples names? It's not a problem she's ever come across before - will disappear. "You're training for the Proving too?"

Aloy straightens up, back on familiar ground. "I'm going to win it."

She grins back at her, sharp and bright. "Not if I'm running."


End file.
